Missing The Cold War

The defense industry and the saber rattling war hawks have missed the cold war. Fighting a bunch of rag tag militants is the mountains or stuck in the middle of a civil war just isn't the same. No as much money to be made and it's a lot harder to get the voters to go along with it. They may credit Reagan with ending the cold war but deep down they curse him for it. (Of course he had little to do with it - The old Soviet Union was capable of doing that without any help.) Well maybe they have an opportunity to fire up the cold war again.
Putin in Iran says against military action in Caspian

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear to Washington on Tuesday Moscow would not accept military action against Iran, ruling out such strikes from any Caspian Sea state.

In comments aimed at the United States during talks in Iran, Putin said: "We should not even think of making use of force in this region."

"We need to agree that using the territory of one Caspian Sea (state) in the event of aggression against another is impossible," he told the presidents of Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan at a summit of Caspian Sea states.

His remarks about territory also appeared aimed at Azerbaijan, where the U.S. military has inspected airfields. Russian media have suggested Washington might be trying to negotiate the right to use its military facilities. Baku denies this.

Russia is annoyed at what it sees as the West's attempts to end its influence in former Soviet states.

In a final declaration, the Caspian nations backed Putin's call, saying "under no circumstances will they allow (the use of their) territories by third countries to launch aggression or other military action against any of the member states."

Of course things are a little different this time. The only Soviet Union failed because it was an economic failure. Russia on the other hand is becoming an economic power house thanks to oil and natural gas reserves. The economy of the US is on a downward spiral.

While a US attack on Iran may well be a step towards a new cold war Matthew Yglesias thinks there might be a second negative outcome.

Vladimir Putin's warnings against military action against Iran deserve to be taken very seriously. Since we're not contemplating actually conquering Iran and trying to occupy its territory, people need to understand that the post-strike diplomatic environment is going to be much more important to the future of the Iranian nuclear program than is any damage that bombing Iran with our on-the-table options might or might not do. If Russia decides to just send some scientists with schematics and materiel over to Iran and show them how to build a nuclear bomb, then -- bam -- nuclear bomb.

Bottom line is that no good can come from an attack on Iran - by the US or Israel. Even neocon war hawk Frank Gaffney thinks it's a bad idea.